the two styles has been twelve days, and will so continue for several centuries to come.

The Russians, who are of the Greek church, still adhere to the old style; and it is remarkable that the present History does not in any way advert to this circumstance.

Article IV treats on the new French calendar, though in a very obscure and imperfect manner. It seems to have been the joint work of Lalande and d'Eglantine, and to have been regulated by the following positions: viz. 1. that the æra should commence from the foundation of the republic, or the 22d of September, 1792: 2. that each year should begin at midnight with the day of the true autumnal equinox for the observatory of Paris: 3. that the year should consist of 12 months of 30 days each, with five supplementary days at the termination of common years, and six of the bissextile.

The fifth article enumerates the various astronomical instruments that have been principally employed; such as gnomons, sectors, mural arcs, whole circles, theodolites, transit and parallactic instruments, equatorials, &c., with the names of the principal makers; among whom, of course, the English are the most conspicuous.

Observatories naturally follow from this subject; and they are noticed in the next article. Some account has been already given, indeed, in the second volume, of the two grand establishments of this kind in France and in England. But the eighteenth century has been very fruitful upon this point, as appears by an enumeration here made of the observatories constructed in all the countries of Europe, as well as in some parts of Asia and America.

In the seventh or last article of this book, a short account is introduced of the vain and pretended science of astrology. False and frivolous as this art may be, the author holds himself excusable for giving it a place, from the benefit it has produced to the true science of astronomy, and indeed to almost all the other mathematical sciences. It is no less certain than extraordinary, that the astronomy of all countries and all ages, from the Chaldeans and Egyptians down to the eighteenth century, was either judicial astrology, or a science cultivated for its benefit; and to excel, even in this kind of astronomy, it is manifest that the preparatory branches of arithmetic, geometry, and other sciences, must have been studied. We find, in this article, curious notices concerning many remarkable characters who have figured in this line. Happily the knowledge and progress of true science, particularly of the true system of the earth's motions, about its axis and round the sun, have freed the astronomers of Europe (though not all the common people) from the false allurements of astrology. Yet the Turks and the eastern nations generally still hold the fallacious notions of

antiquity; and even think, whatever we may pretend, that we no less cultivate astronomy for the sake of the occult science of astrology, than we ransack the ruins in their countries in search of lost or hidden treasures.

The next or eighth book contains the history of the progress of navigation in the eighteenth century, with regard both to the construction and management of ships. The first article treats of their construction, which attained its greatest improvement in the course of the century adverted to. A particular account is subjoined of the treatises that have been written on this branch of naval architecture, with the institutions, or acts of governments, or other plans for its improvement, projected in different countries: whence it appears that the French have paid incomparably more attention to it than the English; and that, while it has been with the former a great national object, with the latter it has been left to chance, or to the care of individuals that the only society or association of this kind in England, which was formed in 1791, and wore the most promising aspect, has been suffered to languish and expire, through the total want of public encouragement. Hence it is not to be wondered at, that, in the article of ship-building and theoretic navigation, the French have far surpassed us.

:

The second article here treats of the arched or curved shape of the hull: article III, of the oars; article IV, of the sails and masts, with the action of the wind upon them: article V, of the management or working of ships. In this part, much ingenious mechanism is necessarily considered; such as the resistance of the hull in passing through the water; the action of the wind against the sails, with the manner of placing or setting these, to have the best effect; also, the position and management of the helm ;-subjects which have exercised the ingenuity and learning of some of the ablest mathematicians, as Ranau, Huygens, Bernouilli, Euler, Bouguer, Clairaut, Juan, &c.

Article VI treats on the helm, which, it is well known, is a very important particular, as well for velocity of sailing, as for directing and varying the ship's motions, especially in time of action. The longer the ship, the more difficult in turning by the helm; and it is here conceived to be owing to the greater length of the French ships than of the English, that the latter, by manoeuvring better, have the advantage in sca engagements.

The seventh is a very important article, and relates to the resistance of fluid to solid bodies, when moving through them.. A neat abridged account is here given of the chief experiments> and theories that have been made and laid down for obtaining the resistance of fluids to bodies of different shapes and in different circumstances, and for applying them to the improvement of naval architecture. These experiments and theories

are chiefly those of the philosophers on the continent, such as Bouguer, Juan, Borda, Bossut, Dumaitz, Thevenard, Romme, who have all of them laboured and written very usefully on this important and public concern. The historian might, however, have availed himself of the labours of some philosophers in our own island, particularly those of the late society for the improvement of naval architecture, who made some of the best experiments, and drew from them the most useful practical rules. The chief results noted by the historian are, that the vessel sails better, or faster, when built pretty large or thick at the prow, and drawn out long and narrow behind; also, that, with the same breadth, the prow may be considerably varied in dimensions, without altering the velocity or rate of sailing; and that it is better to make experiments on the vessels themselves, than on small models.

In the eighth article is introduced a very sensible paper on the irregular motions of a ship, called rolling and pitching, the former being the motion from side to side, and the other from end to end; in which are contained the results that have been given, in consequence of government encouragement, or directions of several learned men and mechanists, to obtain for ships under sail the greatest degree of stability.

The ninth article treats on the best distribution of the loading of a vessel, the various positions of which, it is well known, make a very great difference in a vessel's sailing. The Academy of Sciences have published many pieces on this subject, received in consequence of rewards held out to learned men for that purpose, as Euler, Bossut, Groignard, Gauthier.

The tenth article is wholly employed on an account of that excellent book, the Examen Maritimo of don Jorge Juan, formed on a happy conjunction of theory and practice.

Article XI is devoted to the writings relating to the gauging or measuring of vessels, in order to ascertain their tonnage; the twelfth to the cordage; and the thirteenth, and last, to the modes of procuring sweet and wholesome water from the salt water of the sea, by means of distillation.

To the above succeeds the ninth or last book of the history of navigation, which contains the progress of the art of pilotage, or that which respects the course and situation of a ship. Of this part, the first article treats on the mariner's compass. From the history of this instrument, it appears that it was used in Europe in the twelfth or thirteenth century." An account is given of the changes of the magnetic direction, as to declination and inclination, as also of the construction of artificial magnets; in the course of which, Lalande, with his accustomed partiality, ascribes the chief merit to his compatriots, slighting and disparaging the ingenious labours of Knight, Mitchel, Canton, &c.

Article II is employed on the history of the log, and other instruments for measuring the rate of velocity at which a ship sails; and article III, on the instruments for taking vertical or altitude angles, for determining the latitude, &c.; such as the astrolabe, arbalate, cross, quadrant, sextant.

The remaining three articles of this book are devoted to the history of the longitude: the fourth, contains a number of the more early trials and projects, which have been since mostly laid aside: the fifth, the discoveries of marine time-keepers; and the sixth, and last, the method by means of the moon, or what is commonly called the lunar method;-articles which are extremely curious and valuable, and exhibit a very clear, and explicit account of all matters relating to the longitude.

To the foregoing books succeed six supplements, and the life of Montucla. Of these supplements, the first is a short one on the machine called the capstan: the second, of considerable extent, comprises the history of geography: the third, the history of the quadrature of the circle: the fourth, that of music: the fifth, an apology for the ancient philosophers, concerning the sentiments which have been attributed to them; and the sixth, the calculus of derivatives, by M. Arbogast. The history of geography contains a very neat condensed account of the discoveries of the different quarters and parts of the earth, both ancient and modern. The history of the quadrature of the circle offers, in many respects, a faithful and clear statement of that curious matter, with the exception, as usual, of some unjust omissions with regard to the English nation. The author ascribes to Leibnitz the invention of the series 1-+,&c., for the quadrature of the circle in the year 1673, though, in reality, it was given some years earlier by James Gregory; and attributes to Euler the method of dividing an arc, having a rational tangent, into two or more arcs having also rational tangents, for the purpose of finding more quickly converging series for the quadrature of the circle; although this method had been practised long before by Mr. Machin and Mr. William Jones. He has also omitted the mention of a further extension of the method, and other more quickly converging series, given in the Philosophical Transactions of the year 1776. In the fifth supplement, M. Montucla very ingeniously defends the ancient philosophers from many absurd and ridicu lous notions and opinions concerning the celestial bodies and, the universe, which have been ascribed to them by the misre presentations of the vulgar and the ignorant.

To these articles is added, as we have already observed, some account of the life and writings of the very learned and ingenious author, M. Montucla; from which it appears that he was not less amiable in the private walks of life, than respectable in his public character, and in the republic of letters. He was

born at Lyons in the year 1725; spent a great portion of his life in the office of first commissary for the king's buildings; lost his employment and his fortune by the revolution; and closed his useful labours, and his life, with the end of the year

1799.

We shall only add, that, from the form in which these volumes are printed, and the want of a good table of contents at the head of the volumes, and of a much larger alphabetical index at the end of them, we have found some difficulty in tracing any particular fact. We may also remark, that this History, now extended to four large 4to volumes, of near 800 close pages each, has become too laborious for general reading, and that it enters too fully and minutely into the particulars of every science, as if with a view rather to teach those sciences to novices, than to epitomise their history for the learned.

Pisa.

ART. II.-Parnasso degl' Italiani Viventi. Parnassus of living Italians. 12mo. Vols. I—XV. Imported by Gameau and Co.

To what extent this work may proceed, we know not. We have already received fifteen volumes; and more will probably be added in a short time. It is introduced by a brief advertisement from the editors, in which we are informed, that, while themselves have been anxious to make their selections from those poets of the present day who have been chiefly celebrated in Italy, and whose fame has extended beyond their native country, the pieces actually admitted are those which have been pointed out by their respective authors, as what they have severally conceived their happiest productions, and on which they build their fairest hopes of longevity, if not immortal reputation. The principal contributors to the Parnassus are Pignotti, Savioli, De Rossi, Pindemonte, Bertola, Bondi, Anguillesi, Pagenio. We were surprised to find appended to vol. X, containing, for the most part, the poems of Bertola, a long prose éloge on the late M. Gessner: and we expected to have seen in the collection before us some specimens from Alfieri and Melesigenio. Why these names have not appeared in the list of their contemporaries, and their productions superseded the trite and stupid amorets of Savioli, and many of the fables of De Rossi, we know not, unless it proceed from a most unjustifiable partiality. We nevertheless receive with complacency the work as it is, since it enables us to fill up a considerable chasm in our' journal, occasioned by a ten years' war.

The collection opens with Poesie di Lorenzo Pignotti, Arettino-Poems by Lorenzo Pignotti, of Arezzo, which extend to the first three volumes. Pignotti, alas! is no longer one of the living Italians. He was one of the most illustrious and most